 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) June 15, 2010 BP was deploying a second ship Tuesday to the Gulf of Mexico, where crews will burn up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day in a bid to significantly boost efforts to stem the massive leak. The controlled burn method, deployed at the direction of the US federal government, would expand total spill containment capacity to 20,000 to 28,000 barrels per day, a team of top US officials said in their latest assessment of how much crude is spewing into the Gulf. The ship, called the Q4000, does not have enough capacity to store oil and continuously barging it to shore would involve "significant safety risks" due to the sheer number of vessels in the area, officials said. But they said the vessel will perform a critical function close to the ruptured wellhead by managing control systems for a critical valve known as the blowout preventer. The Minerals Management Service, a government agency tasked with overseeing offshore oil drilling, has authorized BP to burn up to 12,000 barrels of oil and flare up to 50 million cubic feet per day through the Q4000. BP expects to burn oil for four to six weeks. While burning of the oil siphoned up to the Q4000 would be gradually phased out, officials said they expected to continue flaring natural gas until relief wells are drilled and the flow has been stopped. That work is supposed to be completed in August. BP said the burner used for the operation has "very high" combustion efficiency and is not expected to cause much smoking. Respirators have been distributed to personnel working in the area. About 15,000 barrels of oil a day are being siphoned up to a another ship -- the Discoverer Enterprise - via a mile-long pipe leading from a containment cap on the fractured wellhead. Officials say that system can pull up to 18,000 barrels a day. BP deployed the containment cap -- dubbed a lower marine riser pipe -- on June 3, after several unsuccessful bids to cap the leak spewing into the Gulf since an April 30 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig. The company has outlined plans to bring in additional ships and equipment to boost its total collection capacity to 40,000-53,000 barrels per day by the end of June and 60,000-80,000 barrels per day by mid-July.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Obama warns of oil spill 'epidemic' in Oval Office addressWashington (AFP) June 15, 2010 US President Barack Obama warned Americans Tuesday they faced a long battle against an "epidemic" of oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico and called for a new "national mission" to wean the United States off fossil fuels. In his debut prime-time address from the Oval Office, Obama also vowed to do whatever was necessary to help the people of the southern US coast recover from the disaster and ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook